More than $276,000 was fraudulently transferred out of a bank account last week belonging to Ballantine Communications, Inc, the parent company of The Durango Herald, The Journal and The Tri-City Record.
Durango Police Department investigating officer Isaiah Grijalva said the suspect fraudulently retrieved account information from a BCI staff member by posing as a representative with Alpine Bank, the banking institution used by Ballantine Communications.
The account was then illegally accessed, and the money was transferred to multiple banks outside of Colorado.
The fraud was announced Friday during a staff meeting at The Durango Herald.
No employee or staff paychecks were impacted as a result of the fraud, and company operations have been able to proceed normally, said John Blais, CEO of Ballantine Communications.
The fraud was uncovered by the company’s accounting department, he said.
Blais said in a statement to employees that Ballantine’s insurance company has been notified, and that the incident did not affect subscriber, advertiser or employee information – only financial assets in a single account.
Local bank officers and Alpine Bank’s fraud unit are also involved in the investigation, he said.
Alpine Bank Colorado President Eric Eicher warned against several common types of fraud, including email compromises, wire transfer scams and “spoofed” number phone calls – which was the tactic used against Ballantine Communications.
“Spoofing” is a scam tactic in which a caller disguises their phone number with a fake name – like “Alpine Bank Fraud Alert” – to make it appear as if the call is coming from a legitimate source, tricking people into sharing sensitive information.
Eicher said if someone receives a call from a number that claims to be their bank and is asked for sensitive information, they should hang up and call back using a number that has been verified to connect with the institution, or visit the bank in person to verify that the call is real.
“Fraudsters are getting better at what they do,” Eicher said. “This is their job. And with AI and other information that’s readily accessible to them, they’re just taking advantage of the situation.”
No bank will ever call a customer asking for sensitive information like a login password, Eicher said – which is a common tactic used by scammers.
“If I could articulate anything as being the most important, it’s that a bank will never, ever ask for your online password,” he said. “No bank ever will do that because they don’t need it; they already have your information at their fingertips.”
The department’s investigation is ongoing, and information about the scale of the attack or number of suspects involved had not yet been determined as of Friday.
Because Alpine Bank is federally insured, the case has the potential of going to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Garrison said.
Local law enforcement is unaware of other fraud cases involving the same set of circumstances as the one involving BCI, she said, but cases of fraud, in general, are not new to the city or La Plata County.
Durango police and the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office have responded to 25 total cases of fraud since January 2024, Garrison said. Eighteen of those involved amounts over $20,000, six were over $100,000 and one was over $1 million.
Grijalva said fraud cases have become commonplace.
“My hope is that people realize that fraud is big,” he said. “It can happen to anybody, and (it’s important) people do their due diligence to be safe.”
epond@durangoherald.com
